Introduction:
Introduction:
Ville Puoskari from Finland ordered one of our telescope primary mirrors. We supplied the mirror of high quality and on time to Ville. Here is what he mentions about our customer service and the special mirror.
Ever since I have built the first version of my travel telescope with a 3D printer – I have had a feeling I could make a larger aperture scope for my astronomical adventures. With larger aperture comes the inevitable problem of focal length – a 200mm f/5 telescope is almost a meter long! But what if you would go with a faster optical system? Well there is an idea! Que a long but fruitful conversation to India and the heart of this project is born at the hands of a master optician of Aperture telescopes. For a custom made mirror I wanted to go all in and boy did they not disappoint. The primary mirror is 200mm diameter f/3.3 light bucket with a measured Strehl ratio of 0.966!
Shiny!
Ronchi test
With such a great mirror comes the need for a very good secondary mirror too. My first purchase of a 90mm diameter Hubble Optics secondary from Germany came in a million pieces due to poor packaging, although I got a full refund on that I have not been able to source another one yet in EU. Speaking of secondary mirrors – I have made some progress on the secondary mirror spider – the first iteration was 3D printed with an aluminum central piece for bolts. Then I had an idea that I could make the entire assembly if I just had a proper milling machine – or that was at least the excuse I gave myself (and the wife!) to buy a milling machine.
It remains to be seen which of these is a better solution, I’m keen to test them out for potential flexures once the OTA is completed. Stay tuned for part two!
